Routes, Hideouts, and Stories from the Wild West
I’m excited to announce that Discovering the Outlaw Trail is now available for pre-order from local bookstores, Mountaineers Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon!
The book should ship by September 1st, 2023. In the meantime, please check out my social feeds, including Instagram and Facebook, where I will increasingly post photos related to the outlaw trail.
From the back cover: Welcome to the OUTLAW TRAIL! During the days of the Wild West, this network of rugged routes linked remote hideouts across the desert Southwest and Rocky Mountains. Today, that same impenetrable terrain—where bandits fled, and lawmen feared to tread—offers some of the greatest outdoor adventures in the country. With this story-packed guide, you can hike, bike, paddle, and drive along the paths of rustlers and robbers. Come follow the outlaw trail to alpine ghost towns, dizzying slot canyons, winding rivers, scenic roadways, fascinating museums, and hidden hideouts.
The Whole Kit and Caboodle: Over 90 outlaw adventures, with a modern twist, that combine historic experiences and outdoor activities. Enjoy Wild West trips across Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota, plus spurs of the trail in Idaho, New Mexico, Kansas, and Arkansas.
The Lowdown: Mountain bike exhilarating trails through hoodoos near Utah’s Bryce Canyon, then stop by Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home. Walk around a picturesque gold mining town high in Wyoming’s Absaroka Mountains, followed by the Buffalo Bill Center museums in Cody. In Arizona, paddle the Colorado River through Glen Canyon and visit the old cowboy crossing at Lees Ferry. Hike to the summit of Black Elk Peak in the fabled Black Hills, then hop aboard a restored 1880s train. Venture overland into legendary Robbers Roost, and wind down afterward with a snort at a Moab saloon (or microbrewery).
The Digs: From scenic campgrounds to wilderness tent sites to historic hotels, all the resources you need to plan an epic outing.
The Yarns: Enjoy colorful tales about Butch Cassidy, Queen Anne Bassett, the Sundance Kid, and other infamous outlaws. True stories from the same real-life places that you can explore!
More about the project: I began exploring the Outlaw Trail while following the John Wesley Powell Route: Exploring the Green and Colorado Rivers. Originally Discovering the Outlaw Trail was intended to be the second installment in what has become a trio of books that attempt to reimagine what a travel book can be, by including a trip guide, true stories, photos, and more. Due to pandemic-related delays, this book ended up coming out third, a few months after Space Age Adventures: Over 100 Terrestrial Trips and Out of This World Stories.
In this case, Discovering the Outlaw Trail has many true stories about the Wild West and the outlaw era, including a multi-part retelling of the saga of Butch Cassidy, Ann Bassett, the Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch. If you loved the 1969 classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, then you are going to love this book. You’ll learn the real-life dramatic stories behind the legends, and you can visit the actual places where the events unfolded!
The second element is that this book has about a hundred color photos from the areas covered in the book, often presented in large formats like a coffee table book. The third element is a trip guide to over ninety adventures with an outlaw and Old West theme, including actual hideouts, ghost towns, trails, and more. This way you can have your own Wild West adventures in the same places that the outlaws once roamed.
In the coming months, I’ll be sharing photos from the book and places along the outlaw trail on my social feeds, including Instagram and Facebook. I’ll also be posting companion articles, stories, and adventures from the Outlaw Trail here on my website. I’m excited to team up with Mountaineers Books to bring the Outlaw Trail to life for a new generation of readers and adventurers!
Normally, I might write “please order now,” but you’re outlaws–you’ll do it when you want to: local bookstores, Mountaineers Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon!
Alright, enough talk. Time to get after it!
